As spring slowly sets in, woodland creatures are coming out of the woodwork. It’s a time of rebirth and new birth, and sometimes mama rabbits and hares leave their young alone for periods of time.
That doesn’t mean that they’ve been abandoned, said Shawna Randolph of the Edmonton Humane Society (EHS), and it certainly doesn’t mean that members of the public should intervene by removing the animals and treating them like stray dogs. Doing so will cause more harm than good.
“It’s really important for people to know that this is a serious thing that we see year after year,” Randolph said.
That agency and the Wildlife Rehabilitation Society of Edmonton (WRSE) have both been experiencing daily reports of people who have either removed a wild baby hare from the environment and placed it into his or her care, or are contemplating doing so because of the misperception that it’s been abandoned by its mother.
On Monday, six of these animals were brought to the EHS shelter. They were promptly put into the care of the WRSE to give them the best chance of survival. This is a scenario that plays out every year.
Baby hares are born with full fur, eyesight and the ability to hop around, Randolph said. Often, the mother will go out on her own so that her own scent will not attract predators to the brood. The babies spend most of the day by themselves either near trees or in open fields. Removing them can result in their deaths.
“Wild baby jackrabbits in particular, require specific nutrition that only their nursing mother can provide,” said Debra Jakubec, executive director of the WRSE.
“In a sense, they’re kidnapping it from its mother, because the mother is nearby,” Randolph added.
Both societies advised that, if a young hare has no obvious injuries, people should leave it alone or return it to where it was found. They added that it’s against the law to keep a wild animal and baby hares do very poorly in captivity because they are high-stress animals.
People who suspect that a baby hare’s mother may have been killed is asked to call the Wildlife Rehabilitation Society of Edmonton hotline at 780-914-4118 or the 24 Hour Help Line at 1-888-924-2444.
